Atalanta travel to Florence with both of their senior strikers and most of their central defence on the injury list, and I think that pairing is the story, not the length of the list. Our availability data has Scamacca and Raspadori out up front, and Hien, Kossounou and Kolasinac out at the back, plus Bellanova and Kessie. Fiorentina are short too, but mostly in the back line (Pongracic out, Ranieri doubtful). So my question: can a visiting side rebuilt at both ends still press high, or does it have to sit deeper than it likes?
Atalanta first. When the centre-backs who normally cover a high line are missing, the whole pressing structure gets harder to hold, because stand-ins rarely trust the space behind them. Up front, with Scamacca and Raspadori both out, nobody is there to hold the ball up and let the midfield arrive, so even a good press may not turn into chances. That is two separate problems that feed each other.
Fiorentina's side is different. Losing Pongracic means the home defence has to find a new partnership against a team that, even short of strikers, will keep running at them. Sottil, Atta and Parisi are also out, so the home squad has little depth to change things from the bench. The open question is whether a patched home back line is more exposed than an Atalanta attack with no obvious focal point.
Source: our availability records for this match (latest observation just before kick-off). Lineups may change what this looks like, so I'd treat it as a question rather than a conclusion. Which side do you think misses its missing players more?
